CyOptics, Kotura win U.S. Commerce Department NIST-ATP award

CyOptics Inc., a leader in Indium Phosphide (InP) optical chip and component technologies, and Kotura Inc., a leading supplier of silicon photonics components, today announced that the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has awarded them $5.9 million in funding for a three-year project to develop next generation Terabit Photonic Integrated Circuits (TERAPICS). “In network centers and high performance computing clusters TERAPICS will reduce the number of transceivers, connectors and fibers by a factor of 100,” stated Arlon Martin, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Kotura. “We are excited that NIST-ATP sees the potential of our combined technologies to achieve this goal.” Stefan Rochus, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at CyOptics stated, “The funding support being provided by NIST-ATP will help to push photonics integration technology frontiers to new limits. “The TERAPICS development project will leverage CyOptics’ broad device portfolio of InP based lasers, receivers and integration processes as well as our highly automated assembly and packaging platforms.” The project will use a combination of monolithic and hybrid integration to reduce hundreds of individual components to less than 10. While the first phase of the TERAPICS development will provide a platform for 100Gb Ethernet, the final project goal targets the demonstration of optical laser and receiver components for transmission speeds of up to 1Terabit-per-second (1,000Gbps). Kotura will develop the highly integrated silicon photonics chips, which serve as the mounting platforms for the laser and receiver arrays as well as providing the multiplex and de-multiplex functions. CyOptics will develop the monolithic arrays of high speed Indium Phosphide (InP) based lasers and detectors, the automated assembly processes and the laser and receiver components. The TERAPICS components will be assembled on CyOptics’ highly automated assembly platform in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, USA.